BEARYMORE

You'll like Bearymore, the unicycling circus bear, even though his problem—working up a new act before next season—is as old hat as the ringmaster says his performance is, and the not so novel solution, riding his unicycle on a tightrope, presents itself in a most contrived and unlikely manner: Waking from. his winter's sleep on a rainy April day, Bearymore notices his cycle hitched to the telephone/laundry pole, and so as not to get wet himself he travels across the clothesline to fetch it inside. But Freeman tells it with disarming innocence, and his yellow-shaded pencil drawings have a quiet glow that is equally becoming to the bustling de-camping circus and the bear's lonely trailer. And nightshirt-clad Bearymore, dripping wet and grinning away after the sheer force of his idea has knocked him from the clothesline into a puddle, is a sight to applaud.